A gas tank and two shipping containers obstruct passage from Colombia to Venezuela on the Tienditas International Bridge over the Tachira River on Feb. 6. The U.S. is stockpiling aid on the Colombian side of the bridge, which was already shut due to tensions between Venezuela and Colombia.
U.S. humanitarian aid sits in a warehouse in Cucuta, Colombia, just over the border from crisis-hit Venezuela. According to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the supplies are part of a scheme cooked up in Washington to undermine his government. Juan Guaido, the Venezuelan opposition leader whose claim to be interim president has been recognized by more than 30 countries, says the goods will enter Venezuela on Feb. 23. It's unclear how, since Maduro still controls Venezuela’s military.
While the aid remains in limbo, thousands of Venezuelans cross the border every day, looking for food and medicine. They often cross paths with smugglers taking advantage of extreme price distortions in Maduro's Venezuela to sell goods at huge markups in Colombia. Bloomberg News photographer Ivan Valencia spent a week around the Colombian border towns of Cucuta and Puerto Santander, and witnessed the desperation brought on by Venezuela's economic implosion.